


Lives of the saints

by Tabata



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, M/M, Religious Imagery & Symbolism, Saints
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-29
Updated: 2020-02-29
Packaged: 2021-02-28 02:00:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22962073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tabata/pseuds/Tabata
Summary: The tour guide leads the small group of young students through the room dedicated to the major saints. Her voice is nice and clear as she explains briefly but comprehensively the pieces of art they're passing by on their way to the main hall.
Kudos: 2





	Lives of the saints

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know what's gotten into me.
> 
> written for: COW-T #10  
> prompt: The High Priestess (The Popess)

The tour guide leads the small group of young students – aged fourteen to seventeen – through the room dedicated to the major saints. Her voice is nice and clear as she explains briefly but comprehensively the pieces of art they're passing by on their way to the main hall.

“As you can see, on your left we have scenes of the life of Genevieve, Apollinaire's most faithful companion. These tapestries date back to the battle of Walsau and they come from the Castle of Horora, which some of you might know for the hot encounters between Peran and Myrmen.”

A few of the boys in the group intone the first notes of _Feuch, na falbh, a ghràidh_ , the traditional epic song that tells the story of the two knights, that after the death of Peran by the hand of his jealous sister, were forced to consume their love only inside the castle of Horora, that was said to be built between the land of the dead and the land of the living.

The guide was expecting that to happen, so she slows down her pace and lets them sing. Peran and Myrmen's tragic love story is one of young people's favorites as it has everything: heroic knights, epic battles, love winning over death and, of course, hot steamy sex divided in quatrains. No group goes by without singing at least a few stanzas after she mentions the castle of Horora.

“This is the first time Genevieve is depicted as we are used to see her now,” the guide resumes her explanation as soon as the song is over and all the kids are quiet again. “She's holding her naked breasts in her hands and she's offering them to the viewer, most likely a believer. The gesture symbolizes her strenuous work of conversion. Her long blonde hair is braided with flowers of sugarplums, which means availability.

Following into Apollinaire's footsteps, Genevieve helped her friend convert the entire Cirraine region, which ended up to be the first land of the Coalition to accept the Art of the Popess Apollinaire. Now, if you follow me to this side of the room, I want to show you something.”

She likes to build up the interest of her groups before taking them to see the highlight of the whole collection, which is of course the statue of Apollinaire herself. She thinks it's a fantastic piece of art, but its magnificence works twice as better when you step gradually to it, learning to know her character first through the many stories that involve her or the people she loved.

After all, as Apollinaire once said, _I was only made as I am by the hands that touched me_.

The kids join the guide next to a glass cabinet, containing the rest of a good measure of ropes. “These are ritual bonding ropes, commonly used by the Sisters of the Knot throughout the Coalition territories. These are made of silk and they date back to the third century AA. Nowadays similar ropes are made of other natural fibers in accordance with the national standards, but other than that they haven't changed much over the years.”

She points out a little detail to them, inviting them to get closer. “As you can see here, there's a little square piece of copper hanging at the end of one rope. This is what remains of two votive medals consecrated to Capucine, patron of bondage. They would hang from the last knot made, over the hands, sex or chest of the individual, as a plea for the saint's blessing.

Capucine's story is one of my favorites. As the legend goes, her father was a rope maker and he had taught her everything he knew about his trade because, as his only daughter, Capucine was going to take on the family business. One night, raiders came to her village and they were determinate to lay waste to the place as raiders usually do. But Capucine grabbed her ropes and marched to the main square, where she stood, facing the raiders. She offered herself for the taking as long as she could be tied up as she asked. The raiders obviously accepted the offer as an immobilized woman was going to be easier to share and enjoy. Legend has it that her total submission and the pleasure she could draw from the pain inflicted upon her skin by the ropes moved the raiders to tears and into conversion. They abandoned the idea of plundering and looting and embraced the Art in its entirety.

Capucine's gesture mirrors almost completely Apollinaire's, when she had offered herself to the eleven leaders of the tribes in exchange of the freedom of the kingdom of King Frexa II. Capucine surely knew Apollinaire, as the soon-to-be Popess was already traveling across the country in her mission of conversion, and she was most likely inspired by the saint herself.

This gives us an idea of how easily and how fast her message was spreading. Her actions and, most of all, the consequences of those actions, were very clear to everybody. Here we are at the beginning of the Art and you can see how deeply rooted it already was. So it's not surprising that it came down to us and that we're still following Apollinaire's words and example.”

The kids asks a few questions, most of them on the knots Capucine used and the positions she had been in. Over the years spent doing this job, the guide has noticed that kids are very peculiar about details. They are always interested in the stories, but they're never satisfied if you just give them the layout. They want everything and she has learned to give it to them.

She leads them towards a table where two huge books rest open on their central pages. “These are the accounts of the life of Capucine made by the Sisters of the Knot, the order she created, in Mistral. In the miniatures that decorate the pages you can see that the ropes were winded around her legs, which were consequently parted and tied with her hands to her back. Then she was bent over on a bale of hay, so that the raiders could access her easily. This is how we're used to see her depicted.”

The guide checks her clock and realizes that she spent more time that she should have in this room and she needs to wrap this up. She briefly shows the kids the paintings of Frobert, with his ever present plug in his hand, and Leonie, Émilie e Venant, always artistically intertwined as you would expect by the patrons of orgies. But then it's time to leave the room and to walk to the main hall, where the statue of the Popess is.

The Popess Room – that is how sector operators call it – is circular and topped by a skylight with Apollinaire's statue directly underneath it. There's not much else in the room, but the statue, a massive 20 feet marble figure, concentrates all the attention on itself, giving the impression of filling the room completely.

The guide invites the kids to take place all around the statue as she comes to stand right in front of it. 

“This statue has been sculpted by the Cleorian Master Ruslan, and it is part of a set of eleven kneeling Apollinaires, one for each city of the Coalition. Here she's portrayed a moment after the end of intercourse, traces of her lovers still visible on her thighs, through her parted legs, on her belly and ass. We know there are more than one from the discarded clothes at her feet and because there is rarely just one. She's looking up smiling, most likely to one of them, as she cleans her mouth.

Her happiness is visible, almost palpable. It's in the way she's sitting back playfully on her ass, like a little kid, in her quirky expression as she looks to the other person, that cuts out the viewer but manages to encompass all the figures that must be there with her and that we can't see. The act itself is uncommonly meant to be private – and the artist only shows it to us in tiny details – but the wellness resulting from it is made to be seen by us, to be share with the world.

Ruslan decided to show us a more intimate Apollinaire. Not the saint – as she's portrayed in the famous fountain of Malvarma – but the girl, the great human being that was able to save an entire country with only her body and her faith in it.

Now, for those who don't know – but I'm sure there is none – Apollinaire was the daughter of a whore. Raised in her mother's brothel she worked there until the Repression Era, when she had a change of heart and took a vow of abstinence, which later on she willingly abandoned to stop the siege of the eleven tribes.

As you already know, she offered herself to the tribes' leaders, making a deal with them: they would not take the country as long as she could satisfy them. They accepted, convinced that she was not going to last very long as there were eleven of them – all of them young, hungry and renown for their prowess – and just one of her, but she proved them wrong. It was them who laid down their arms and renounced to the siege and their war, drained and blissfully satisfied by her lovemaking.

King Frexa II, up to that point a strenuous advocate for purity and celibacy, could not deny the power of sex, of which Apollinaire had gone back to be a mouthpiece. So, he sanctioned Apollinaire's way of thinking, that soon became her personal movement and what we nowadays call the Art. King Frexa went on offering the eleven leaders a seat at the table and created with them the Coalition, while Apollinaire started to journey through the eleven countries, bringing her message to whoever wanted to listen and learn from her.

She was sometimes accompanied by several figures, some of which we saw in the other room, but there were many many others. The most important of all were Genevieve and Arsène, her closest friend and the man she shared a life with. She became a saint long before her death, so by the time the movement became organized and turned into what we have now, she was both a holy figure and a political one. The _Popess_ was how her believers called her and she made it her own name.  
After her death, by her own instructions, none took her place as the head of the movement as her message had to be spread by and through the believers. She remains the only popess of the Art and every day we try to follow her example to bring forth her message, right?”

The kids nods as they walk around the statue so each of them can admire it in its entirety. They make thoughtful questions and they seem genuinely intrigued and interested, which is extremely rewarding as it doesn't happen as often as it should. They take pictures with the statue of Apollinaire, making out among them for the camera, and they take pictures with her. Then, she gives them directions to reach the souvenir shop, where they can buy reproductions of the statues, books on Apollinaire's life or the lives of her saints, postcards and many other mementos of their visit at the museum.

It's been a very good group, but it's time to prepare for the next one.


End file.
